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Does your employer not (optionally) manage your 401k? Mine has been doing better than my other accounts on index funds.

I've never heard of such a thing. For me, it's always been a choice of funds (and maybe company stock) held at a brokerage that allows me to reallocate investments as I wish.

I have to believe that if a company is "managing" 401k investments, it's just an abstraction on top of some agreed-to investment strategy at the brokerage.

Depends on what you mean by "manage". The money is explicitly yours, the company can never touch it. However; you are locked into the company agreement with the custodian (e.g. Vanguard and their list of investment funds).

Not locked. You can roll it over into a IRA/ roth IRA and manage yourself. You won't pay early withdrawal taxes as long as you roll over within 60 days.

An 401k custodian that allows an in service distribution (rollover while employed) is rare, and I think it is not even allowed by law before age 59.5.

Rollovers typically only happen after employment has ended.

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/i/inservicewithdrawal.asp

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